


Odd Packages

by inkysplots



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Illnesses, Loss of Limbs, Post Hogwarts AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 03:43:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14252295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkysplots/pseuds/inkysplots
Summary: Ginny Weasley is a Healer in training at St Mungo's when she is requested for an assignment at Hogwarts, under siege. Comfort comes in the oddest packages when you're in the middle of a war.





	Odd Packages

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Quills and Parchment Healer and Mediwizard Competition. Anything you recognise, I do not own.
> 
> Many thanks to my lovely beta for the encouragement and love.

A loud bang echoed through the walls of St Mungo’s, causing the stitching Ginny Weasley was performing to waver slightly. Her patient, still startled from the bang, looked down and frowned at her sloppy job. 

“What's wrong with you girl, are there no competent mediwitches anymore?” He batted her hand away from his leg and reached for the call nurse button. The Ginny of a few months back would have scolded him, fixed his leg and made him apologise for being an ass, but she merely apologised with a meek smile and scuttled out of the room. 

As she entered the corridor, she found a gaggle of staff crowded around the nurses station, gossiping loudly about the noise. Another loud boom rocked the walls of the hospital slightly, causing the loud speculating to cease in an instant.

“Get all of the patients secured and ready for transport! Tell the surgeons they’ve got five mins to pack and prep for moving!” The booming voice of the floor coordinator rang over the heads of the staff, who murmured agreements as they began apparating all stable patients out of their rooms. With a groan, Ginny turned around to move the grumpy asshole she had been tending to earlier, wondering how she had found herself in this position.

Before she could get to his room, the ceiling caved in spilling dust, debris and brickwork in her path. A hastily shouted burst of  swearing and a flash of sparks caused the hospital porters to come running to investigate the source of the noise.

“What the fuck is happening?” Ginny spoke softly, not sure anyone heard her over the chaos.

“Weasley! Over here, we need you,” Nobody had the audacity to ignore the floor coordinator, so off Ginny went, obediently following in their wake.

“We’ve got a special assignment for you,”  
  
“In this chaos? What the hell is even happening anyway? The whole building looks ready to fall down,”

“Then you’ll be glad it’s an outpatient visit - the hospital wing at Hogwarts has taken on more injuries than they can handle, what with this recent bout of death eater attacks. They’ve requested someone who knows what warfare is like - a lot of these kids are young and traumatised,” The coordinator stopped by the fireplace and peered over her glasses at Ginny. “I know from your record that you’re an expert in childhood trauma, and with warfare in the school,”

Ginny rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration as her coordinator raised an eyebrow with an impatient glare.

“Look, are you going or not? If not, get back in whichever room you were and start getting people out,”

“Fine, pass me the Floo powder. How long do I need to be there for? And where are all of you going?”

“As long as they need the help. And to St Reginalds, in the Midlands,” She thrust the bag of powder at Ginny and brushed past her, yelling at the staff in her way. With only one slight shake of her hands, Ginny reached in, grabbed the powder, and stepped into the fireplace.

One mouthful of soot later and she was standing in the infirmary wing, trying to process what she was seeing. The beds were no longer organised in neat rows; instead they were pushed to one corner of the room, still being used by people, but squashed so close together they could hug each other. The main room was filled with rolls of linen doubling up as mattresses, with children stretched out over the sheets. The back room smelled faintly of copper and toilet cleaner, so Ginny presumed it was being used as  a theatre. As she was staring at the hive of activity, Poppy Pomfrey pulled her aside.

“I am so glad you’re here! There’s just me, and at least 70 kids of varying injuries,” Poppy pointed to the corner of the room with the beds. “Those are the ones needing more care, they really should be at St Mungo’s but they keep telling me they’re at capacity,” Poppy  steered her towards the back room. “And this used to be my office but it’s now an emergency room or a surgery room. Not that I’m any use with that,” Ginny paled as she looked around.

“I’ll go see who I can help in the beds, if you need me, please shout,” Ginny forced a smile at the older witch, who was honestly out of her depth here. As she began navigating the bodies of the less injured children, she scanned over them looking for anything more serious than a broken limb of a few small cuts. Not seeing anything, she approached the beds with a slightly queasy stomach.

The beds were packed together tightly, so Ginny had to manoeuvre them into the makeshift walkway in order to get to the patients. There were six beds in total, and the professional inside her told her not to look for her friends. The first bed had a young blonde boy, with what looked like blank ink running through his veins. A quick flip through his chart showed a nasty jinx combination from two death eaters was to blame.

“Hey there, my name is Ginny, what’s yours?”

“James, I’m a Ravenclaw here. In my third year here,” He puffed out his chest a little as he said that, and Ginny couldn’t help but smile. She noted his breathing was a little ragged, and quietly spelled his lungs to repair any damage done to them. She squeezed his hand and moved onto the next bed.

The next four beds were variations of the first; hexes gone wrong, nasty jinxes, and one particularly unfortunate potions accident that had burned a young lady’s face whilst a jinx was causing her flesh to become sticky and melt in the burnt area. Ginny relieved the pain for as many of them as she could but, aside from regular spelling to keep their bodies from succumbing to the dark spells, that was all she could do.

In the final bed, Ginny saw a brunette girl she recognised as Astoria Greengrass. Her lower left leg was missing below the knee, and her neck was a sickly green colour, with an angry looking purple rash circling her neck like a choker. Ginny stared in shock, it was the first case of scofungulus she had seen outside of a textbook, and seeing it on someone she knew was even more jarring.

“Weaslette,” The curt voice of Astoria was strangled somewhat by the rash, but the derision, even of someone offering to help, was clear for everyone in the vicinity.

“You should be in isolation, Astoria,” Ginny frowned, before moving to examine Astoria’s neck.

“Get your blood traitor hands off me,” Astoria snarled. “I’d rather die than let you touch me. ” Ginny sighed, before levitating her and pushing her bed to a less used corner of the room near the potions stock.

“We can place a bubble around you here so that nobody else catches your disease. Which I’m hoping is the reason you’re being such a prick to me, despite the fact I’m trying to help you,” Ginny glared at the younger witch as she began the isolation enchantments.

“Won’t you catch my rash if you’re in here?”

“I’m surprised you care actually but no. I’m still a trainee healer, but I’ve had all my shots,”

“Trainee? Oh great, now I know I’m going to die in your clumsy hands,”

“Oddly enough, trained healers keep getting captured or killed by your friends so I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. Out of everyone there, you’re in the worst shape, and your infection is getting to the point where I don’t know if I can save you,” That shut Astoria up, and Ginny began searching her numerous pockets for her textbook.

“You still need a book to tell you what to do?”

“Would you rather I killed you? I believe that was an option a few minutes ago?” Ginny raised an eyebrow but smiled inwardly as Astoria shrank back into the bedding. Identifying her disease before she had looked at her chart was a big confidence boost for Ginny, even if she had the moodiest patient to deal with.

Ginny stood up and walked over to the potions rack, running her finger over the edge of the shelf as she poured over the book, looking for the right potions. All but one were there, and it was the most crucial one.

“Dammit,” Ginny set the rest of the potions down by Astorias bed, placed an anti tampering charm on them, and went to find Poppy Pomfrey.

“If we’re missing a potion, where do we go for it? Snape? St Mungo’s?” Poppy looked at her like she’d sprouted horns.

“Snape is dead, Ginny, didn’t you know?” Ginny didn’t know, and the revelation stunned her into silence for a second. “You can ask Horace if he can whip something up - but send an owl, the corridors are war zones right now,” Ginny nodded and went to find an owl in the mess of the infirmary.

Astoria winced in obvious discomfort as Ginny walked away. Talking so much had severely hurt her throat, making it now difficult to swallow or breathe heavily. She looked around to see people on the floor and in beds, with rashes, burns, missing limbs, and instinctively tried to wiggle her missing toes. One frustrated grunt later and she was blinking back tears, turning her head away from the main room.

She heard the clink of bottles and felt Ginny move away again. Perhaps being nasty to her wasn’t the best course of action. It wasn’t her fault that Astoria was in here, and she hadn’t tried to poison her - yet. An owl almost dive bombed onto her lap with a shrieking hoot, dropping a letter with her name in her mother's distinctive penmanship.

“Hey! Stop, I need you,” Ginny came rushing through the makeshift beds on the floor to stop the owl from leaving again, and gave it her hastily written note to take to Horace. If she had been paying attention, Ginny would have sworn the owl glared at her before taking off.

“I just need one last potion to begin your treatment, but I think Horace can make it overnight so we can start the other ones right away. Can you sit up for me?” Astoria didn’t move, too transfixed by the note in her hands. “Hello, Earth to Astoria?” Ginny waved her hands in front of the younger witch's face, bringing her back to reality and shuffling to sit upright.

“Now I’ll measure out these and put them here - “ One conjured tray appeared over Astoria’s lap. “And you take them all. Fair warning, they’re going to taste vile, but you need them,” Ginny placed six small shot glasses on the tray, each containing a dark murky liquid that looked similar to pond slime or rainy mud. Astoria grimaced with every mouthful she took, not only from the taste but from the pain from swallowing with her rash.

Ginny noticed the pain markers and summoned a mild pain reliever. Bottle in one hand, she opened up her pocketbook to check for interactions, and after deeming it safe, let Astoria have a few sips. A quick pain relief spell to her throat later, Astoria was almost giddy with the freedom of no pain, and actually smiled at Ginny,

“Thank you Weasley. I knew you weren’t all bad,” Astoria watched through hazy eyes as Ginny nodded at her, and said her goodbyes. Something about it being late and sleep. Astoria wasn’t listening, she was clutching the letter with both hands, and fighting her eyelids urge to close and send her to sleep.

* * *

 

Ginny awoke with a sense of anxiety and urgency, but concerning what, she couldn’t put her finger on. As she sat up and stretched, the feeling of her bones popping reminded her of the patients in the infirmary on the hard floor, the same hard floor she was currently sleeping on. With a sigh and a desperate need for coffee and a shower, she went to check on her patients.

The other five bedridden students were doing alright; a few renewals of the spells she had put on yesterday, and a dash or two of pain reliever, and there were tentative smiles all round. As she walked over to her problem patient, a house elf appeared by her side, giving her a cup of coffee and some toast before bobbing and disappearing. One of the things Ginny had missed about Hogwarts was the elves toast.

Astoria was sat up reading a letter, her delicate features arranged into a frown. Ginny sat nursing her cup of coffee, not wanting to interrupt, and not wanting to move until the caffeine had hit. She watched as Astoria’s bottom lip wobbled, and the letter was shoved roughly back in the envelope and that envelope thrown to the end of the bed. Ginny raised an eyebrow but continued eating her breakfast.

Astoria knew she was watching but didn’t care. Her mother had written to tell her she was no longer welcome in the family after her failure to pick a side. No concern over her illness or missing lower leg, just disappointment over her loss of a show pony to brag about to the other death eaters. The letter sat at the end of the bed, burning a hole where her left ankle should be.

Ginny vanished her cup and the crumbs off her hands, sterilising them quickly as she walked over to Astoria. A quick visual check of the neck showed a slight receding of the rash, and it looked like the sleep had helped her overall health. An owl swooped down with a large vial attached to its leg, dropping it gently into Ginny’s hand.

“Is that the stuff?”

“It is indeed, your rash has already gone back a little so this should clear it up completely in a few days,”

“I don’t suppose there’s anything in that magical potions cabinet that can regrow my leg back, is there?” Ginny  shot her a look of pity, but said nothing. A short bout of silence fell over the two girls as they stared at the shockingly pink drink.

“It’s not going to drink itself y’know,”

“It smells like raw fish,”

“Do I need to pin you down and make you drink it?”

“I’d like to see you try. Even with half a leg missing and a fucked up neck, I bet I can still overpower you,”

“I used to wrestle with six older brothers. Sometimes all at once. You wanna go, you’re going to lose,” Astoria wrinkled her nose in disgust as she picked up the potion.

“If I drink this, will you sit and talk with me?”

“Why on earth would I want to do that? You hate me, remember?”

“I don’t - oh for Merlin's sake, fine!” Astoria swallowed, gagged a few times, turning sickly pale as she did so, before setting the glass down shakily. “It even tastes like raw fish!” Ginny cast a mild pain reliever on her neck and sat on a stool next to the bed.

“So, why would you want to talk to me? We’ve never spoken before, and the first thing you did was insult me,” None of her other patients needed her, and Poppy was dealing just fine with the scrapes and bruises on the main floor.

“My mother sent me a letter yesterday. Said I was a disgrace to the family for not picking a side,” Astoria began shakily, looking down at her hands as she spoke. “You’re the first friendly face I’ve seen in days, ever since I got sent up here. The others, they won’t talk to me. And all the Slytherins have fled, either to join You Know Who, or run away because they won’t join him,”

“It’s my job to be friendly. Even to people who don’t like me,” Ginny slipped out her pocketbook and began reading it absentmindedly as she spoke. “We aren’t even in the same year, how do you know who I am?”

“Red hair, gave me a good chance of being right,” Astoria said with a small smile. “How’d you get to trainee status so quickly? You’re only a year above me,”

“I left midway through last year. Mum taught me a lot of spells since I was always roughhousing with my brothers. They really need healers and aren’t looking too closely at where they come from,” She turned the page in her book before continuing. “What’s happened here? I thought he was gone for good?”

“He had another part of his soul split, or that's what people are saying. The death everyone saw was just an elaborate act, and now he’s back and worse than ever,” Astoria glanced at her left leg. “And crueler too. Hogwarts is a war zone that I don’t think we can win. They barricaded us in here but we don’t hear fighting anymore, just silence and groans,”

“And Harry has no idea….He’s the other side of the world working with MACUSA,” Ginny rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Honestly, we have what’s in this room, and that's about it. The apparition wards are still up here, there’s no floo powder, but at least we can owl for assistance,”

“So I was sent here to join a group of prisoners?” Ginny’s voice cracked as she realised she might be stuck. “What about the house elves? One just gave me my coffee, can’t they get us out of here?” Astoria shook her head.

“The wards were modified to include house elves in them. They can apparate within Hogwarts, but not outside the grounds,” Astoria moved to squeeze Ginny’s hand - the redhead was going pale and staring at a point over the edge of the bed’s headboard. “I’m sure they’re reached Harry by now, it won’t be much longer,” Ginny could only nod silently.#

* * *

 

Four days had passed, and there was no indication that anything was changing. Astoria’s rash had cleared up, and she was deemed well enough to join the students on the floor, once she could use her prosthesis.

“I’m not sure how they expect me to help you through physio,” Ginny huffed as she fitted the plastic to Astoria’s stump, her hand on Ginny’s shoulder for balance. “Okay, try putting your weight on it, see if you can stand,”

Astoria shifted her weight so it was more evenly distributed, and gripped Ginny’s shoulder tightly as she felt the plastic shift against her calf.

“Can you make it fit more snug? I feel like I’m going to wobble out of it,” Ginny nodded, and bent down to make some adjustments with her wand. A few tweaks later and Astoria felt the plastic shrink tightly around her leg and smiled. “That feels a bit tighter, thank you,”

“Okay, can you stand without holding onto me?” Ginny stood ready to catch her if she fell, standing in front of her as she slowly let go of Ginny’s shoulder. There was a brief moment of triumph, as Astoria stood tall with her new leg, before her weight overbalanced and she fell right into Ginny’s arms, her head landing squarely in Ginny’s chest.

Astoria breathed the scent in, confusion washing over her as she struggled to get her balance again. Ginny noticed that Astoria wasn’t moving and wondered if she was crying, and felt a sudden urge to keep her wrapped in her arms. The two parted and stood up, Astoria still needing balance and neither of them wanting to let go, but not knowing why.

Ginny squeezed Astoria’s hand and sat her back down on the bed. After a few unsuccessful attempts at getting the prosthetic off, she magicked it off with a whoosh, and propped it by the bed.

“You did great today, you almost had it for a second there,” Ginny smiled at Astoria, her fingertips almost touching hers on the bed.

“It’s going to take a lot of practice. Kind of a good thing we’re stuck in here for the foreseeable future I guess,” Astoria countered with a weak chuckle. “When we do get out of here, would you like to go grab a coffee sometime?” Astoria kept her eyes firmly trained on her foot as she asked.

Ginny was taken aback. It was just one brief hug after all. Was the confinement making her go stir crazy? But she couldn’t deny this spark in her chest that had grown since she started helping Astoria. Maybe they could work on a friendship first and see where things go. Coffee could mean almost anything, Ginny reasoned in her head.

As she was overthinking things in her head, Ginny noticed she had moved her fingers to cover Astoria’s, and that the brunette girl was looking down at the floor in an uncharacteristically shy manner.

“Sure, when we get out of this hell hole, I’d love to,” Astoria smiled at her lap, but felt her head being turned to face Ginny as she rested her forehead on hers.

 


End file.
